Iran ready to restart nuclear talks with world powers

TEHRAN: Iranian officials said Tuesday they expect nuclear talks with world powers to resume in the "next few weeks," but they signaled they would take a tougher stance against the U.S, per the state-run IRNA news agency. The talks to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have been stalled since June, when hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi was elected to office. State of play: Iran's foreign ministry said Tuesday that it would soon resume discussion on potentially resurrecting the deal, though it did not offer specifics.

"As previously emphasized, the Vienna talks will resume soon and over the next few weeks," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said, according to IRNA. Yes, but: Raisi made clear Iran's more hardline negotiating stance in an address to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday while saying that his government would resume talks with the aim of lifting U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"The Islamic Republic considers the useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions," Raisi said in his pre-recorded address. Raisi said that U.S. sanctions, "especially sanctions on medicine at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic," were "crimes against humanity."

The US pulled out of the Iran deal in 2018 during negotiations with the Trump administration, and Iranian government officials then violated the limits placed on its nuclear program. In his speech to the UNGA Tuesday, President Biden said his administration aimed for a return to the 2015 deal. "We're prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same," he added.